Senators Latch Onto Olympic Snowboarder To Pump Immigration Agenda

(Roll Call) — “He chose a life of sacrifice, leaving his home country and family, with a faith that his children could excel in America,” Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia wrote of Kim’s father in a Facebook post.

Democratic senators and immigrant rights activists latched on to Olympic gold medalist Chloe Kim’s Korean-American roots as they continue to push for immigration-friendly measures in Congress.

Kim, 17, whose parents moved to the United States in 1982 from South Korea, won the gold medal in the women’s snowboarding halfpipe competition in Pyeongchang.

Her father, Jong Jin Kim, won American hearts before the halfpipe finals when NBC cameras showed him hoisting what appeared to be a homemade sign reading, “Go Chloe!” (Young snowboarders from the Mountain High resort in California gave him the sign, according to NBC.)